


A Treatise on Dragon Adoption, Otherwise Known as Child Theft

by Des98



Series: The Adventures of Mini Zuko [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Non-Consensual Adoption, The sun warriors - Freeform, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, dragons have intense parental instincts, he's also an angry turtleduck who likes to set things on fire, please help aang he's just doing his best, smol zuko, the dragons - Freeform, toph is a little dirt gremlin and we love her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25601140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Des98/pseuds/Des98
Summary: Things don't go quite as planned when Aang and Zuko go to visit the Sun Warriors.
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: The Adventures of Mini Zuko [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1826704
Comments: 100
Kudos: 1604





	A Treatise on Dragon Adoption, Otherwise Known as Child Theft

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts), [noodlebunny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/noodlebunny/gifts), [venomous_syfy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/venomous_syfy/gifts).



Aang was having trouble with firebending. Zuko and Iroh had both made efforts to teach and get through to him, and none were successful. Although, safe to say that some were more successful than others.

“Why are you scared?” Zuko grumbled at him from his perch astride Naga’s large back. The tiny prince sat atop the hulking beast with an imperious air, glaring down at Aang. “It’s fire. It’s not scary, and as long as you’re in control it won’t hurt you.” He’d eventually become less perturbed with the strange colors in his own fire, just shrugging in a ‘well, this might as well happen’ sort of way, and so in his hands, he idly played with a ball of pink and purple fire, batting it back and forth and making little cyclones of it to spin in his palms. 

“How can you say it’s not scary? I mean…” in a moment of tactlessness, Aang gestured wildly at Zuko’s scarred side, and immediately regretted it when his mind caught up with his mouth.

Zuko, however, didn’t seem too bothered. He merely shrugged, shaping the little ball of fire into the shape of a dragon and sending it scurrying up to rest on his shoulders. Aang flinched at how close to his skin it was.

“All my scars are from people actively _trying_ to hurt me,” he told Aang. “My father had to hold his burning hand against me with intent, and he had to do it for a while. There’s no way a firebender can cause themselves that kind of damage by accident. We’re pretty fire resistant, so it has to be a sustained blow..” His tone was blasé at a level that hurt Aang to hear; it pained them all deeply to hear the way Zuko talked about his family’s heinous abuse and the casual use of the plural _scars._

“But your control is good,” Aang rebutted, trying not to stare anxiously at the dragon-shaped flames now circling lazily around Zuko’s head. “Last time _I_ firebent, I hurt Katara.”

Zuko shifted on Naga, revelling in the fact that from on top of her, he could look _down_ at people. He’d missed that feeling while they were apart.

“Yeah, but she’s not a firebender. You are, and your flames won’t hurt you. They won’t hurt me either, since I can deflect them. So as long as you’re with just me or Uncle, it doesn’t matter if your control isn’t perfect yet.” Zuko was really getting frustrated with this hemming and hawing on Aang’s part. Yes, he remembered being afraid after his own injury, but it hadn’t lasted long. He’d told himself he was being a sissy and plunged his hands into the fire of the boiler room, bending the flames around them to remind himself that as long as he was the most powerful bender in the room, _he_ was in control. And, seeing as the room was empty and Uncle, the only truly powerful bender on the ship (Zuko didn’t count himself in that group) would never hurt him, he managed to swallow that fear until it just… stopped. He understood Aang’s fear of hurting someone else, but since there was nobody else but them in the empty valley they’d chosen to practice, Zuko had a hard time understanding why Aang couldn’t do the same.

“I… I just can’t, Zuko, I _can’t!”_ Aang sounded near the point of hyperventilating, and Zuko softened his tone, sympathy welling up. Despite the fact that he knew they couldn’t really afford time to coddle Aang, he found himself wanting to anyway.

“It’s okay,” he sighed, trying not to sound too disappointed in the little monk. “We’ll try again tomorrow.”

They got back to the campsite, and Uncle looked at Zuko, a question in his eyes. Zuko pursed his lips grimly, and that was enough for him to know that they still hadn’t made any progress. It had been a week since they started trying, and neither of them had made even a little headway.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Iroh.” The others, besides Toph, still hadn’t yielded to Uncle’s insistence that they could call him ‘Uncle Iroh’ or even just ‘Uncle.’ Zuko guessed that maybe they were worried that he’d be offended or worry about having to share his Uncle, but it really didn’t make any difference to him. Uncle had enough love to go around.

“It is alright, child,” Uncle told him. Zuko was already sitting down on the ground in front of Iroh, knowing without being told that the man was about to make them tea, but Aang didn’t realize until Uncle made the offer. Zuko thought that was kind of silly, since it was _always_ a safe bet to assume Uncle was about to offer you tea.

He sipped the fragrant jasmine in his cup and sighed with relief, a smile lighting up his face despite his best efforts. Since Katara had eased the nerve damage and some of the tension in the tight skin of his scar, it made his smiles looser and even more brilliant. It made Uncle smile in return and ruffle his hair, which caused _Zuko’s_ smile to disappear as his expression scrunched indignantly. Uncle’s smile only widened.

“I think it’s time you boys go on a little field trip,” he told them serenely as he pulled out a packet of cookies from Agni-knew-where.

[]

Zuko looked at the ruins of the old sun warrior temple dubiously. He couldn’t figure out why Uncle would send them to look at some old crumbling buildings, but he trusted him, so he just went with it. ‘Going with it’ seemed to be most of what he did these days, anyway.

 _Besides,_ he mused, scratching at his elbow where a giant mosquito-moth had bitten him, _I’m just glad to be out of that Spirits-cursed jungle._ The hike to get here had _not_ been fun.

He savored Aang’s impressed look as he ran sideways along the wall to escape the first booby-trap. He’d been all weak and injured for most of their time travelling together, and as a consequence the rest of the group liked to forget that he was smart and strong and capable and could handle himself just fine. And even though his chest was still uncomfortable and twinged slightly whenever he moved too quickly, he was glad to see that at least one of them was finally looking at him as something other than the tiny angry face sticking out of the bundle of blankets Katara kept trying to swaddle him in constantly.

 _It was about time,_ he thought, as Aang stopped following quite so close behind him as if worried he might fall down any minute. The sweet taste of his triumph lasted about five minutes before they entered some sort of shrine and it was shattered by Aang forcing him to _dance._

 _“Ohhh,”_ he breathed, annoyance forgotten as he reached out to touch the golden relic that had ascended on a pedestal as they finished the routine. He ignored Aang’s cautioning, so entranced by its brilliance that he forgot to even be annoyed that he had to stand up on his tiptoes and stretch his arms up above his head to reach it. His inner fire flickered and followed the stretching lines of his chi as his fingertips reached to touch the metal of it, his body driven by some primal instinct and a deep sense of rightness.

Rightness that was promptly shattered by the chamber filling with goo and forcing them up against a grate to look up at the stars. They were stuck, immobile.

To top it off, one of the bars was pressing directly against the new scar on Zuko’s chest, the pressure forcing his breath to come out in a slight wheeze. All traces of Aang’s earlier awe at his acrobatic prowess were gone, replaced by concern, and he didn’t even point out that they wouldn’t be in this mess if Zuko hadn’t touched the shiny rock.

When the pressure on his lungs was finally eased the next morning as the apparently _very-not-extinct_ sun warriors freed them, Zuko gave one last dry, wheezy cough before he began trying desperately to catch enough breath to yell at Aang (who was anxiously fluttering around, trying to offer his support to Zuko) to _stop hanging off him like a limpet, dammit! Honestly, you’re worse than the goo!_

He didn’t get that far before Aang was pulling the ‘avatar’ card with some yakbullshit about how he ‘didn’t use it that much, but…’ He rolled the one eye that could do it properly.

They were taking them to see some old ‘masters,’ and Zuko had the sudden feeling that maybe Uncle not killing the dragons and him sending them to the ruins were connected. He didn’t say anything to Aang though- the kid was already worried enough about having to carry some of the eternal flame.

The sun warriors looked at Zuko in awe and complete and utter shock as he took his flame, which immediately shifted to a myriad of colors in his hands. He grunted and looked away, uncomfortable with the feeling of so many eyes on him. It would be easier if they were hostile, Zuko thought. He was used to open hostility, but even after three years away from the palace in Caldera, he was still uncomfortable with being regarded by strangers with anything other than cruelty. At least he knew cruelty, and what to expect from it. These people were looking at him as if they couldn’t believe he was real.

He was grateful when the one called Ham Ghao made some snarky comment and gave him a dirty look. Except the gratitude must have shown on his face, because then the sun warrior looked confused. Zuko quickly changed his expression into an angry glare so that he looked away. It wasn’t hard to conjure that anger, when he looked at how _tall_ Ham Ghao was and thought about the unfairness of it.

Aang’s fire petered out on the walk up the stairs to the temple, and Zuko pulled his hand away when he asked for some of his.

“My fire’s pretty distinct, Aang,” he pointed out, motioning to the swirling colors. “Better to just show up empty handed than be caught in the act of mooching off me and then lying to the masters about it.”

Aang conceded the point, but he was definitely grumpy about being called a mooch.

And then they were doing the dragon dance. 

[]

They finished and turned to face their judgement. Zuko could feel Aang shaking from where they stood back to back. His head was slotted where it fit at the base of the avatar’s neck, and he could feel the tremors start from there and travel all the way down his toes. He squeezed his hands in reassurance. 

Zuko wasn’t afraid. Perhaps he should have been, but he wasn’t. He watched in awe as the dragonfire surrounded them, reaching out instinctively. It curled to meet him, a tendril of colorful flames breaking off from the main cyclone to curl around his wrists and up his arms. They were stunning, even with his reduced ability to see colors.

“I understand,” he whispered, awestruck.

The red dragon stuck its nose towards Zuko, and Zuko was not afraid. He stepped forward to place his scarred hand against the warm snout. The heat of its scales should have burnt it, but it didn’t. 

Information flooded his brain as they made contact. He knew that the red dragon’s name was Ran, and she was the life-partner to Shaw. They were truly the last of their kind, alone but for an egg that would not hatch. They had seen much, and survived much, and now they were confined to this temple and their single cave instead of reaching towards the sun in triumph as they stretched their wings under Agni’s light. They were lonely, he could feel. It was a pain that he knew Aang would understand- the terrible burden of being the last of your kind: to be so very, very old, and so very, very kind, and the very, very last. Tears were slipping down his good eye and past his cheeks without him realizing it.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered hoarsely, forgetting the sun warriors, forgetting their audience, forgetting even Aang’s presence at his back. “You shouldn’t be alone.”

That was the last thing he said before he found himself being picked up by the collar of his tunic and flown into the dragons’ cave.

[]

Ran and Shaw shared a look over the two younglings They were both very nice children, and they both deserved to learn the secret of fire, and they both bore very great burdens, but only one of them was _theirs._ The little scarred hatchling who bent their fire like it was his own and bore the clear touch of the Sun Spirit had come to them, and clearly they were meant to take care of him. It mattered not that he had no wings or scales and could not fly; that only meant that he could not leave them like a normal hatchling eventually must.

The little avatar called after them in distress, and Shaw turned around to huff an annoyed puff of smoke at him, as if to say _yes, yes, you brought us our hatchling, we taught you the secret of fire; run along now._

What happened next was not their concern; the two-legged skin-sacks who worshipped them would tie up the loose ends. Ran had their hatchling carefully between her jaws, and Shaw could begin building him a nest in their cave.

The hatchling said something in the strange language of the skin-sacks, and Shaw butted him with his snout gently to hush him.

Ran began to scurry around the cave, looking for something suitable to feed their hatchling, and Shaw looked him over more closely. The skin-sack guise he was confined to was small, even for their kind, and his poor hide was damaged. Someone had done that to _their_ hatchling. Well, never again. He carefully blew a gentle flame to wash over their child, like the baths that they would have given to any normal hatchling, if they had one. When the flame dissipated, the hatchling sat, blinking at them in astonishment. He seemed surprised that he had no new burns, and Shaw huffed a low, rumbling chuckle. No self-respecting dragon parent would neglect to fireproof their hatchling. If only they’d gotten to this one earlier…

[]

Chief Ito looked at the avatar in complete disbelief. He was asking them to get his friend back from the masters, as if any of them would stoop to such blatant disrespect of the masters’ decision.

“I’m sorry, avatar, but we cannot do that. It is a great honor to be chosen as a hatchling to the masters. We were not aware that they engaged in such a practice, but it is far beyond us to question their decision. Your friend belongs to the masters now, and I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do about that.”

“You’re asking me to leave without Zuko?!” Aang yelled, appalled.

“No, avatar,” the chief clarified. “We are _telling_ you to leave without him. He has been adopted by the masters, so you can be assured he will be safe and well cared for. But I must warn you that any attempts to contradict the will of the masters will be met with force. SO leave, or we will make you.”

This left Aang at something of an impasse. For whatever reason, his control of the avatar state hadn’t been working since Zuko had taken the lightning for him in the crystal caverns. There was some sort of mental block there, and no amount of meditating seemed to be able to help him correct it. So he could try to fight _all_ these sun warriors, alone, and, on the off-chance he managed to incapacitate them all, he would then have to go against two _actual dragons_ who had decided that Zuko was their child and did not seem inclined to negotiate that point.

Or he could leave, go get Iroh and the rest of the group, and then come back and try his luck then. It seemed like their only option. He really, _really_ hoped things didn’t get out of hand. Naga and Appa were already barely getting along when it came to the matter of who got to claim Zuko as their human, and bringing _another_ endangered species into the mix did not seem like it would go well for any of them, but needs must. He could totally talk Appa into not fighting a dragon, right? _Right?_

All of the breathing exercises Iroh and Zuko had taught him came very much in handy, keeping him on the edge of a panic attack instead of diving straight into it.

 _“Why_ did you have to get adopted by dragons, Zuko?” he groaned into his hands as he trekked back through the jungle towards their campsite.

[]

Zuko wasn’t _frightened,_ per se, but he wasn’t exactly sure how he was gonna get out of this one. Ran and Shaw had made him fire-proof, which was pretty cool, and then they also brought him an entire carcass of charred… _something,_ and did not seem inclined to accept ‘I’m not hungry’ as a response. 

It was actually not bad, thank Agni. Dragonfire seemed to be a seasoning of its own as well as a way to cook things, and it sort of tasted like yakiniku sauce, but with some sort of enhanced flavor that he couldn’t identify. The meat was a little crispier than he might have preferred, but he wasn’t going to complain when the two mythical creatures watching him seemed almost… eager for his reaction.

“S’good,” he swallowed, forcing a smile, and if he wasn’t mistaken, the two dragons seemed pleased with themself. Ran gave him a fond shove with her nose with a gentleness Zuko didn’t realize that dragons were capable of.

“So uh, I sort of have to get back to my friends and my Uncle…” he began, and Shaw raised an eyebrow. He didn’t seem to understand human language, but Zuko supposed his body language was clear enough.

Shaw laid his chin carefully on Zuko’s head, and did some sort of mental thing that made his answer pretty clear. There were no words, exactly, but the feelings translated well enough.

_You were not protected well before, hatchling. We protect you now._

“That’s nice, but I don’t exactly _need_ protection.” The look Ran directed at him reminded him very oddly of one his mother used to give him and Azula, and Zuko didn’t even need the mental link to understand it. It was a look that very clearly said, _go to bed, and I will humor you by telling you we’re going to talk about it in the morning even though my mind is already made up._

He was just being forcibly tucked in between the gleaming red coils of Ran’s body when Ham Ghao and Chief Ito entered, bearing what he assumed were offerings for the dragons. There was gold and jewels and such shiny things of the sort that already decorated the cave, along with some blankets that Zuko assumed were for him.

“Hey, where did Aang go?” Zuko asked them, and the two men honest-to-spirits _bowed_ to him.

“We have chased him off, young master, at the will of the Masters.” Ham Ghao said this as if it was completely reasonable, all traces of former animosity towards Zuko gone.

“Wait, what do you _mean_ you chased him off? And why are you calling me ‘master’?” Zuko demanded.

Servient tone not wavering, Ham Ghao responded.

“The Masters have seen fit to adopt you as their hatchling, and as such, you are now a master yourself. As their chosen hatchling, we are now your loyal followers, just as we follow your parents.”

“These are not my parents, they’re _dragons!”_ Zuko cried out- honestly, had everyone lost their damn minds?!

Ran and Shaw came forward, growling at the two sun warriors. They were upsetting the hatchling, and it would not stand.

“We’re sorry, Masters,” they bowed again. To Zuko, they merely said, “it seems the masters think we are disrespecting you. We beg your pardon and will return in the morning.”

“Wait, no!” Zuko yelled, frustrated. He couldn’t just live in a cave with dragons forever, and he didn’t plan on it. 

He’d have to wait until Ran and Shaw were asleep and then escape.

The problem with that was that Ran and Shaw did not seem in any hurry to sleep, watching to make sure _he_ was asleep before retiring themselves. And somewhere along the line, faking sleep turned into _actual_ sleep, and then it was morning and he supposed he’d have to wait and try again later.

[]

Iroh wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the information that his Zuko had been adopted by dragons. He sat, blinking haplessly at Aang, speechless with shock for the first time in a very long while. This might just be the most shocked he’d ever been, and considering the fact that he was raising _Zuko,_ that was saying a lot.

Toph cackled, delighted. “Oh, this is just too good! I am _never_ letting him live this down!”

Katara looked worried. Sokka seemed caught somewhere between the two.

“We kind of have to get him back first, before we can make fun of him,” he pointed out reasonably. 

“Eh,” Toph shrugged. “I’m the greatest earthbender in the world. I can take some dumb warriors and a couple of dragons.” 

Iroh did not stop to consider that the fact that he was more worried about the dragons’ safety than Toph’s could be considered unusual by an outsider.

“The dragons are nearly extinct,” he warned her. “We must utilize diplomacy in this outing. Harming the dragons must be considered only a very last resort.”

Although, if _actually_ killing the last two dragons was what it came down to to get his Nephew back, he absolutely would.

[]

The sun warriors were not happy to see them. Toph, however, was _very_ happy to see the sun warriors. After all, Uncle had said she couldn’t hurt the dragons, not that she couldn’t harmlessly imprison the sun warriors in some nice earth tents.

Uncle didn’t bother with taking any of the eternal flame this time, and neither did Aang. He didn’t think a little fire would make any difference in convincing Ran and Shaw to give him his nephew back.

Nothing could have prepared them for the sight of a very grumpy Zuko, strapped to Ran’s chest in a very large baby sling. The sun warriors must have helped them make it, and Iroh was sure that it took all of them combined to force his Nephew into it. He was equally certain that it was fireproof, or else it would surely be ashes on the ground by now.

“You couldn’t have gotten here an hour ago?” Zuko grumbled, the good side of his face bright red with embarrassment. 

Even Katara couldn’t hide her laughter, and Zuko very much wished Toph would be kind enough to let the earth swallow him up.

“Hello, Masters Ran and Shaw,” Iroh bowed humbly. “While I appreciate your concern for my Nephew, and I’m certain you’re taking very good care of him, I’m afraid that I must request that you give him back to me. He is the light of my life, and I would miss him very deeply if he was gone.”

Ran pointedly brushed a whisker along Zuko’s scar, glaring daggers at Iroh. The message was clear.

Iroh bowed his head in shame. “Yes, I have failed him before, but I promise that I will never let it happen again, even if it means my own life.”

“Uncle is not allowed to die, and I can protect myself!” Zuko yelled, and was ignored despite being impressively loud about it. 

“Yeah, from everything except being forced into a dragon papoose,” Sokka snickered. Zuko gave him a look that promised murder.

Uncle made tea for everyone, handing a cup up to Zuko, and Ran reluctantly settled onto her haunches to hear him plead his case for why he should be allowed to take his hatchling back.

In the end, it took two hours of arguing, and Zuko had to act as a translator for whatever weird mental link thing that the dragons took to communicate, since they would not suffer themselves to be touched by any other human.

FInally, an agreement was reached. They would allow Iroh to take Zuko back until the day of the invasion, but once it was won, they were to be given free run of the palace and the capital city and allowed to stay near Zuko as they pleased. They also demanded to forge a mental link with him, so that they could know if he was in danger.

“Do I really have to agree to be babysat by dragons in my own home?” Zuko sighed deeply.

“If you want your feet to touch the ground again, I think you do,” Sokka chortled.

“You know, I wish Suki _had_ fed you to the Unagi,” Zuko snapped as Ran finally lowered her head and allowed Katara to untie the papoose.

“Just be glad _you_ didn’t get near it, or it would adopt you too.” Sokka laughed, unoffended. 

The mental link involved Ran and Shaw surrounding Zuko in a circle and both bending their fire onto him at the same time as he bent _his_ fire back at them. He was pleased to find that, while he could feel their steady presence in the back of his mind, it wasn’t invasive.

“If any of you say another word about this, _ever,_ I will light you on fire,” Zuko warned as they left the temple. He knew that they weren’t going to listen, but he had a plan. He knew now, from spending time with the dragons, how to keep a flame burning indefinitely without allowing it to spread anywhere else. So he knew that _he_ would have the last laugh when Sokka’s beloved boomerang became Zuko’s Flaming Boomerang.

Apparently, Sokka thought that temporarily losing boomerang was a fair price to pay for making ‘dragon baby’ jokes. Zuko hadn’t seen that coming.

He almost _did_ consider the cabbage man’s offer to come live with him, until he found himself wrapped in another group hug.

It was with mild horror that he realized that he actually _wanted_ to be stuck with these people. 


End file.
